wireless questions

I just bought belkin wireless g router.everything works fine.
only question is that when i click on the belkin icon in my taskbar, my signal strength is only 1 bar??my router is within 10 ft of my laptop??should i pay this no attention or can this be easily remedied?
thanks 4 any help

You can go into the router settings and try changing the channel its broadcasting on. It could be getting interference from household appliances or other nearby routers broadcasting on the same frequency.
I had this issue with a netgear router and changing the channel from 11 to 6 sorted it.

If you open your wireless software and it shows other nearby connections (from neighbours, businesses etc), have a look and see what channel they are all connecting on.

FatTrucker said:

You can go into the router settings and try changing the channel its broadcasting on. It could be getting interference from household appliances or other nearby routers broadcasting on the same frequency.
I had this issue with a netgear router and changing the channel from 11 to 6 sorted it.

If you open your wireless software and it shows other nearby connections (from neighbours, businesses etc), have a look and see what channel they are all connecting on.

Click to expand...

Hmmm... guess your the right person for this... I have always wondered, since back in the days, me and a friend (located down the street from me that is) would connect to each other wirelessly to each others' PCs and enable "file sharing" and "open internet connection (LAN)", though we would both receive signals from other people, though didn't care if they receive some of the net connection, but my question is: Would they and us get in trouble for allowing or doing so? I heard back then it was fine as long as they didn't force the connection on us and only to receive the signal naturally, but not so sure now, but curious if maybe we were doing something wrong and possibly in the future as I still have a "open connection"...

FatTrucker said:

You can go into the router settings and try changing the channel its broadcasting on. It could be getting interference from household appliances or other nearby routers broadcasting on the same frequency.
I had this issue with a netgear router and changing the channel from 11 to 6 sorted it.

If you open your wireless software and it shows other nearby connections (from neighbours, businesses etc), have a look and see what channel they are all connecting on.

Click to expand...

ok i have vista.where would i find the options you are speaking of??
sorry stupid question, but could not find it anywhere??

seether9111 said:

ok i have vista.where would i find the options you are speaking of??
sorry stupid question, but could not find it anywhere??

Click to expand...

Find: Control Panel - System: Hardware (tab) - Device Manager (button): then locate your "Network Adapter" then go into "properties" - Advanced (tab): and you'll finally find "Channel", though best not to mess with it unless you really know what your doing, otherwise you'll mess up the networking. Hope this helps ya.

thanks a million

An easier way is to type your routers IP address (usually on a sticker on the router itself) into the address bar on your web browser. This will access all its settings directly and allow you to make any changes.

You can also set up secured access with a password here (WEP or WPA/PSK) as if you still have an 'open' connection it means anyone with a wireless connection thats in range can connect to your router and steal your bandwidth/use your connection.

Umm.. Far as I know when you change the channel on either device, the other needs to be changed as well.. Otherwise they wouldn't be able to talk to each other

i resolved the issue by moving my router away from my tv